Added week ending 3 Dec 2016

Review Copies

He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly. Review copy courtesy of Netgalley due for publication 4th May 2017.

He said it was consensual.The woman said nothing. But Laura saw it… … didn’t she?

In the hushed aftermath of a total eclipse, Laura and Kit interrupt something awful.

Laura is sure about what happened. Later, in a panic, she tells a little white lie – and four lives are changed irreparably.

When the victim turns up on their doorstep, her gratitude spills into dangerous obsession. Laura and Kit decide to run – but Beth knows they have pledged to see every eclipse together. They will never be able to entirely escape her.

As the next eclipse draws near, Laura must confront the fallout from what she saw in the darkness. Confessing will cost her marriage; keeping the secret might prove fatal.

But all secrets, sooner or later, will come to light.

Kindle Purchases

Inspired by the haunting, passionate story of the city of lights, this epic novel weaves a gripping tale of four families across the centuries: from the lies that spawn the noble line of de Cygne to the revolutionary Le Sourds who seek their destruction; from the Blanchards whose bourgeois respectability offers scant protection against scandal to the hard-working Gascons and their soaring ambitions.

Over hundreds of years, these four families are bound by forbidden loves and marriages of convenience; dogged by vengeance and murderous secrets; torn apart by the irreconcilable differences of birth and faith, and brought together by the tumultuous history of their city. Paris bursts to life in the intrigue, corruption and glory of its people.

Beloved author of Sarum, London and New York, Edward Rutherfurd illuminates Paris as only he can: capturing the romance and everyday drama of the men and women who, in two thousand years, transformed a humble trading post on the muddy banks of the Seine into the most celebrated city in the world.

Belle has taken all the Christmas decorations down. This year they won’t be celebrating.

As foster parents, Belle and Jim have given many children the chance of a happier start in life. They’ve loved them as if they were their own. They shouldn’t have favourites but little Lauren has touched their hearts. And now her mother is well enough to take her back and Belle can’t bear the loss.

Hence, Christmas is cancelled.

So when Jim crashes his car one icy December night, after an argument about Lauren, Belle can only blame herself. Everything she loves is lost. And Belle finds herself standing on The Ha’Penny Bridge wishing she had never been born.

But what happens to a Christmas wish when an angel is listening…

Will Belle realise, before it’s too late, that her life is the most wonderful life of all?

DI Brook thought the nightmare was over- but the Reaper has left behind a horrifying legacy…

A nail-shredding thriller for fans of Stuart MacBride and Thomas Harris.

When an accidental drowning is found to be murder, Brook’s past relationship with the victim makes him the prime suspect. A fact made worse when he receives a chilling message urging him to continue the work of the serial killer The Reaper, the deranged vigilante who had previously terrorised the UK.

When a copycat murder on a Derby estate surfaces shortly afterwards, Brook is left with no alternative but to reopen the case- and to find a serial killer he knows is already dead.

But as Brook delves deeper, he unearths the secrets behind a series of savage murders stretching back to 1975. Terrifyingly, it seems that The Reaper’s influence has inspired a new band of willing disciples…

Beatriz is an uneasy witness to the Holy War of Queen Isabel and her husband, Ferdinand, King of Aragon. A Holy War seeing the Moors pushed out of territories ruled by them for centuries.

The road for women is a hard one. Beatriz must tutor the queen’s youngest child, Catalina, and equip her for a very different future life. She must teach her how to survive exile, an existence outside the protection of her mother. She must prepare Catalina to be England’s queen.

A tale of mothers and daughters, power, intrigue, death, love, and redemption. In the end, Falling Pomegranate Seeds sings a song of friendship and life.

It is 1936 and Spain is on the brink of civil war. Across Europe, young men are enlisting in the International Brigade to free their Spanish brethren from the grip of fascism, leaving sisters and lovers at home.

But not all women are content to be left behind. In Britain, Charlotte McBain and Libby Forbes, friends from opposite sides of the class divide, are determined to do what they can; in Spain, Rosita García Díaz, fiercely loyal to her family and country, cannot stand by and watch. Three brave women, inspired by patriotism, idealism, love and even revenge, dare to go into battle against tradition and oppression.

Tying them all together is Jo, Libby’s granddaughter. Five decades later she travels to Spain hoping to make sense of a troubling letter hidden among her grandmother’s possessions. What she learns will change all of their lives forever.

Deceit, heartbreak and a longstanding fear of reprisals must all be overcome if the deeds of the forgotten women are to be properly honoured.

Kindle Freebies

When a hardworking French priest in the Congo tells an agnostic British journalist, “God is just the best that we can be”, he unleashes a chain of dramatic events that will resonate from Kinshasa to Kingston-upon-Thames.

Rising to the ethical challenge, journalist Frank befriends twelve-year-old Dudu – a homeless Congolese boy accused of sorcery – and promises to help him return to his family.

But streetwise Dudu is nobody’s fool. Their unlikely partnership disintegrates with profound consequences for them both – and for Frank’s wife and kids waiting in London.

In this colourful and humorous travelogue, what you see is not what you get, but a little faith goes a long way.

Frank returns to England from Congo. His cosy routine spins out of control, family life implodes, and tragedy strikes. Is it bad luck or black magic? Retribution by sorcery for betraying Dudu, the homeless street kid he befriended in Kinshasa?

Detective Inspector Peter Anaura, of the City Police Force’s Vice Unit, has been assigned to his dream case, a chance to take down the City’s most elusive and dangerous organised crime syndicate. However, that dream soon turns into a nightmare when he realises that what seemed like a difficult case is actually one that appears doomed to fail.

Hampered by Command and rogue officers, self doubt and a criminal organisation that always seem one step ahead, DI Anaura must dig deep to solve a case that will challenge everything he believes in.

Influence is a story of how everyone uses manipulation and leverage to get what they want whether they’re good, bad, or just damn right evil. The problem is, how do you tell which one they are?

When Inspector Shanti de Silva moves with his English wife Jane to his new post in the sleepy hill town of Nuala he anticipates a more restful life than police work in the big city entails. However an arrogant plantation owner with a lonely wife, a crusading lawyer, and a death in suspicious circumstances present him with a riddle that he will need all his experience to solve.

Set on the exotic island of Ceylon in the 1930s, Trouble in Nuala is an entertaining and relaxing mystery spiced with humour and a colourful cast of characters.

Charity Shop Purchases

It’s always awkward when five thousand kronor goes missing. When it happens at a certain grotty hotel in south Stockholm, it’s particularly awkward because the money belongs to the hitman currently staying in room seven. Per Persson, the hotel receptionist, just wants to mind his own business, and preferably not get murdered. Johanna Kjellander, temporarily resident in room eight, is a priest without a vocation, and, as of last week, without a parish. But right now she has two things at her disposal: an envelope containing five thousand kronor, and an excellent idea . . .

Featuring one violent killer, two shrewd business brains and many crates of Moldovan red wine, Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All is an outrageously zany story with as many laughs as Jonasson’s multimillion-copy bestseller The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.

An absorbing novel about family, love and friendship from the bestselling author of Last Christmas.

With four children, a Christmas cookbook to write, and her mum suffering from dementia, Cat Tinsall has plenty to juggle. When her eldest daughter, Mel, starts going off the rails, Cat has even more on her plate.

Pippa Holliday adores her family, although often finds her hands full. When Dan is involved in a terrible accident, Pippa’s world is suddenly turned upside down.

Balancing her job as a school teacher with twins and her step-son Steven isn’t easy for Marianne North. With her husband’s ex causing trouble, life is getting even trickier.

As Cat, Pippa and Marianne help each other through a difficult year, they’re all hoping for a much brighter Christmas.

Sadly it’s already happened retirement age was 60 but they equalised with men to 65 in 1995. Not a problem, they just forgot to tell people until they changed law again 2011 giving very little chance to plan. I got my letter in 2013 telling me I had an extra 6 years. The vote in Parliament this week this week to reconsider how it has been handled failed by 60 votes. The fact that I’m full of cold and feeling crabby is just letting it get to me. I’ll get over it – not much choice ☺

Not fun reading but the WASPI action group has raised £100,000 to fund a legal challenge. Not sure whether it will achieve anything but happy to support them rather than do nothing. Anyway tomorrow is day. Have a good week ☺